The youngest member of Zimbabwe’s parliament, the founder of the Ukrainian Youth for Global Progress organization, a Sudanese activist and public speaker and a pro-democracy activist exile from Hong Kong. Each had a story to share to UWM on the Wednesday before Election Day in the U.S.
Despite coming from distant corners of the world, two aspects united each of the four speakers: their alleged love for cheese curds while visiting Wisconsin and their dedication to fighting for democracy and human rights in their home countries.
Sunny Cheung, a pro-democracy activist and politician from Hong Kong, has been living in exile after the Chinese government put out a warrant for his arrest in 2020. He says that if he were to return, he would likely face a life sentence in prison. Police in Hong Kong have already imprisoned several of his friends.
“When you see so much sacrifice in Hong Kong, can you really just give up on your own people?” Cheung said. “No. My answer is no. We have to fight for democracy until the day we see liberation.”
In Sudan, internal conflict has killed thousands of civilian deaths and displaced millions, a report from Amnesty International found. Both the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, the conflict’s main combatants, have committed human rights violations.
Hager Eissa is a human rights activist from Sudan. Her family does not always approve of her work, but Eissa said that it is important she continues fighting for human rights in her home country.
“They don’t like it, but I do it for them,” Eissa said. “And I do it for the community. I do it for the ones back home, and all the children that are not able to go to school.”
Dr. Mariia Levchenko, a peace-building activist from Ukraine, has been living in Germany since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022.
“Supporting Ukraine is not just supporting a country which is far away from you,” Levchenko said. “It’s supporting a course for democracy. It’s showing the world how it should be done because autocracies are like a virus.”
In late 2023, men armed with assault-style rifles abducted and tortured Takudzwa Ngadziore, the youngest member of Zimbabwe’s parliament. Ngadziore was dumped about 30 miles north of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, after his Facebook livestream capturing the moments before the incident went viral on social media.
“There is no way you can attain freedom without paying for it,” Ngadziore said. “But importantly, I also believe that a struggle without pain is a picnic.”
China, Sudan, Ukraine and Zimbabwe are not isolated cases. The decline of democratic institutions, such as voting, elections and popular representation has been a trend around the world. They are even declining in Europe and the Americas where these institutions are generally considered to be strong.
Indicators of democratic performance, such as the barriers to organizing new parties and the quality of human rights, have consistently deteriorated in recent years, a report from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance found.
“Global trends in [representation] turned negative more than a decade ago, and 2023 was the worst year we have yet observed,” the report concluded.
Yet the panelists also gave the audience reasons to remain hopeful.
“Dictators are working together,” Eissa said, “but we are also here to show them that we are also working together and we’re going to win this fight against them.”
Cheung shared the same sentiment.
“There are some ups and downs in human history,” Cheung said, “but I also believe that democracy will ultimately win.”
Levchenko said that it is important for everyone to have a good sense of humor in times of struggle. She shared a story of her mother as a Russian rocket flew over them while driving in Ukraine.
“If you see a rocket in the road, just don’t drive into it,” her mother told her. “Just drive around.”
Ngadziore saw the struggle for democracy as something that would take steady progress over a long period of time.
“I think this struggle is not a sprint,” Ngadziore said. “It’s a marathon.”
Doug Savage, the director of UWM’s Institute of World Affairs, shared some insights to conclude the stories of the speakers.
“Your stories remind us that democracy is fragile,” Savage said. “We should realize that this is not something you can set and forget. It requires maintenance.”
The Tommy Thompson Center for Public Leadership, the McCain Institute and the Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship & Civil Dialogue organized the event. You can find full video of the conversation at UWM on the McCain Institute’s YouTube channel.